BERWICK ADVERTISER, 7 FEBRUARY 1920

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TWEEDMOUTH JOTTINGS

The two sons and son-in-law of Mr and Mrs James Gilchrist, Howick Terrace, Tweedmouth have been demobilised, and will resume their pre-war occupations at an early date. These lads have done their bit in the Royal navy. Robert, the elder of the two was originally in the 7th N.F., Territorials, but later joined the R.N., and has done much work in that branch of the service. Harry the younger, has also had a good spell, having joined when 19 years of age, and has been on H.M.S., Ophir for three years. Since his last ten months ago he has travelled many thousand miles in that ship, having been in Japan, China, Chile, Valparaiso, and other distant places.

Canadian souvenir photo of Ophir in 1902, with inset portraits of the Duke and Duchess of York.  The Ophir was requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1915, becoming an armed merchant cruiser. Photo is available under Public domain license. Credit:Winfred J. Erb and Lewis B. Foote.

When his ship was lying at Valparaiso the ship’s band went ashore and the inhabitants gave them a great ovation. It was estimated that 70,000 people turned out to listen to the band. They even strewed flowers in the street in front of them. Harry arrived at Glasgow on Tuesday of last week and from there proceeded home. Their son-in-law John Davidson, has also a fine record of service, and in the early part of the last year Mrs Davidson received official; information that her husband was drowned, his boat having been torpedoed. Happily this turned out to be a mistake, as she received a letter from himself later on. He has lately been on a drifter named “Queen Victoria.” We extend our best wishes to these three who have so faithfully and fearlessly served their country in the time of need.

We are pleased to see home on leave to Knowe Head, Tweedmouth, private William Hettle, M.T., A.S.C. He joined up in November, 1915, and went to France in December of the same year. He has been most of the time on the western front, attached to an ambulance convoy, chiefly used to convey wounded from places such as Armentieres, Neuve Chapelle, Bailleul to Merville, which was the clearing station. Being driven from the last named place by continual German shelling during the March offensive, a place called Doulien became their headquarters. After getting nicely settled there, the offensive drove them still further back, which meant longer runs and longer spells of duty. As the offensive died down they gradually worked their way up into Belgium, and were at Reiny siding when our offensive started. They went straight forward into German territory, going from Reiny to Ypres School House to Gulleghen and Harlebeke, where they were when the armistice was signed. Since then he has been engaged in bringing prisoners back from behind the German lines to Courtra in Belgium, and following up the troops of occupation, picking up the sick and those that fall out on the way. His headquarters have been at Mulheim, where he was comfortably lodged in a magnificent hotel. He left cologne at 3.55 p.m. on Saturday, getting to Calais at midnight on Monday, being 58 hours in a German corridor train. In this country a similar distance is usually done in about 8 hours. Although in all probability he will have to go back to Germany, we hope to see him demobilized at an early date.

On Friday night of last week, about 9 o’clock, an accident took place at Berwick station, two N.E.R. engines having collided with each other. It appears that a light engine from Tweedmouth had arrived at Berwick, and through some misreading or misunderstanding of the signals, which were or should have been at danger, the driver overran these signals, which are situated at the Berwick end of the Royal Border Bridge, at the entrance to the Goods Yard from the south. At the same time an engine and van was leaving the goods yard to proceed to Tweedmouth with the signals clear, they ran into each other, with the result that both engines were considerably damaged, and the tender of one of them partly off the rails.

A mid-twentieth century photograph of the interior of the now demolished former Berwick Railway Station signal box.

The break-down vans were quickly in attendance, and were occupied all through the night, their work being rendered most difficult owing to the twisting and distortion of the engines. There was little delay to traffic, as trains were run through the station. The drivers and firemen of the both engines, and also the guard, who was in his van, received slight bruises and a heavy shaking. The fact that both engines were tender first at the time may have had something to do with the drivers not seeing each other in time to avert a collision.

A very successful social and dance was held in the E.P. Church Hall. Tweedmouth, on Wednesday night of last week, by workers of the National Saw Mills, Tweedmouth. There was a large attendance, 45 couples being present. Dancing commenced at 6.45, and was interspersed with games until 8.30 p.m., when a  splendid supper was provided, which was nicely served out by the girls who are employed there. Before partaking of the supper, Mr Peter Richardson in a few well chosen remarks on behalf of the employees, presented Mr and Mrs  hardy with a handsome silver fruit basket as a token of the respect and esteem in which they are held by all employees. Mr Hardy, in replying thanked all the workers for their great kindness in presenting him with this nice present. He said it would always serve to  remind him of the kindly feeling that existed  between himself as manager and themselves as employees.

Edwarde Potter’s Boke

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Edwarde Potter’s Booke of Phisicke and Chirurgery[1]* is a manuscript from the beginning of the seventeenth century, in Newcastle Antiquaries’ collection at Northumberland Archives.  It contains about 1500 recipes, mostly medical but with some others as well.  It is bound together with an eighteenth century manuscript, mainly of recipes, which we may look at in a future blog.  Digital images of the whole book can be found on the Antiquaries’ website, along with transcriptions of every page, done by a group of volunteers.

Who was Edward Potter?

When we began work on the document we had no idea who Edwarde Potter might be.  However, there were some clues in the text.  The front page is dated 1610, and there is a date of 1594 inside, at the beginning of an inventory of Edwarde’s books, all of them bibles and Protestant commentaries on the scriptures.  The other clue that Edwarde gave was that he had taken some remedies from a book “found in the Parson’s study of Warlingham”.  We found the village of Warlingham, on the Surrey-Kent border.

So it appeared that Edwarde Potter was a literate man, living in the late 16th, early 17th century. He had a library of books and knew a clergyman, the Vicar of Warlingham, from whom he has had remedies for common ailments that are included in his book.  With these facts in mind, we searched the Probate and Wills section of an online genealogy subscription site (findmypast.co.uk).

And there was an Edward Potter who appeared to fulfil the criteria! He was a clergyman in Tatsfield, a small village on the Surrey/ Kent border five miles from Warlingham, who died in 1612. He possessed, by the standards of the day, a large collection of books. In his will he gave two of his daughters 20 books each and left the residue of all his printed books to be divided equally among his sons.[2]

The church of St Mary’s at Tatsfield; though much Victorianised, its nave dates back to the 11th century, though much altered since.

According to The Clergy of the Church of England database (theclergydatabase.org.uk) he was installed as Rector of Tatsfield in 1571. Until 1595 the Vicar of Warlingham was Richard Redworth, then William Parker was appointed Vicar.  When Potter died in 1612, William Parker succeeded him.   These men would undoubtedly have known each other.

Edward’s will, together with those of his wife Joan[3] and son William[4], has allowed us to construct a family tree of 3 generations.  Edward was married to Joan and they had three sons, Thomas, William and Edward and three daughters, Mary, Elizabeth and Theophila. So from a name, Edwarde Potter, a date 1610, and a village in Surrey we have been able to trace the likely owner of our document.

What the book contains

Each of the seven sections of the book contains a series of recipes, neatly numbered and laid out – until the last few pages, when someone else has evidently taken over and it is all much more slapdash.  Some of the recipes are for cookery, especially for sweet biscuits and for preserving cherries, quinces, or damsons.  Others are household hints – how to perfume gloves or make ‘washing balls’.  A few verge on the magical – do you want to know how to get out the precious stone which, apparently, every water snake has in its belly?  Mostly, though, they are medical remedies for a wide range of ailments, from migraine to bladder and kidney complaints, the ‘French pox’ (syphilis), melancholy (depression) and a woman’s heavy periods.

A few of the remedies are very simple, using one or two herbs, milk and eggs; one for a cough is an egg custard with rosewater.   But most of them are complex, using a whole variety of ingredients, and often several stages of preparation, and are the sort of prescriptions you might have obtained from a physician, if you could afford one and if there were any nearby.  They would have been hard work to prepare, with herbs and spices being ‘stamped’ (crushed) in a mortar, ‘seethed’ (simmered) over a fire for a long period, and often finally distilled into what was seen as a pure and concentrated form, in the same way as wine is distilled into brandy.

As for the ingredients… many contain a dozen or more herbs, but also spices, chemicals and minerals which would have had to be bought from one of the London apothecaries’ warehouses.  Newly discovered plants and trees from the New World of the Americas also make their appearance, alongside mercury and vitriol (sulphuric acid).  More startlingly to our eyes, there are also animal parts, animal waste, and human blood, milk, and urine.  This is not unusual in the medicine of the time; some of the ideas were carried over from ancient times, and there was a school of thought that God had put everything on the earth for human use, and so it should all be used for curing humans.

How much good would recipes like the Reverend Potter’s have done?  Not a lot, and in some cases positive harm.  Quite a few of these remedies are very nasty indeed, and in the ‘don’t try this at home’ category.  But we have to bear in mind that when someone vomited up the medicine they had been given, that was seen as a sign that it was working and ‘purging’ them of the disease, rather than being an unpleasant side-effect!

There is a lot to be said for modern medicine!

This blog is a collaboration between Kath Smith from Explore Lifelong Learning in Newcastle and Sue Ward from the Society Antiquaries Newcastle Upon Tyne.

With thanks for help and encouragement with this project to Dr Marie Addyman; Reverent Vincent Short, Vicar of Tatsfield and his wife Veronica; Chris Broomfield, Kent Archaeology and David Rymill, Hampshire Record Office.

[1] phisicke’ means medicine and ‘chirurgery’ means surgery

[2] Surrey & South London Will Abstracts, 1470-1856 Surrey Archdeaconry Court. V8 Register ‘Berry’  1608-1615.  Abstract reference: SW/8

[3]  Kent Wills and Probate Indexes 1328-1890: Rochester Consistory Court: Document Ref: DRb/Pw24

[4] Surrey & South London Will Abstracts, 1470-1856: Surrey Archdeaconry Court Vol. 9 Register ‘Stoughton’ 1614-1621: Abstract reference: SW/9_593

BERWICK ADVERTISER, 23 JANUARY 1920

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THE CLOSING OF THE SCHOOLS

Berwick Elementary Schools have been closed as follows during the last fifteen months:-

October 22nd, 1918 to January 6th, 1919 – Closed for influenza

Mid – February, 1919 to 17th March – Closed for influenza. Bell Tower Infant School closed for another fortnight.

April 14th to May 12th – Tweedmouth Infants’ School closed for measles.

September, 1919 – Extra week’s holiday for the conclusion of the war.

December 10th, onwards – Closed for scarlet fever.

We don’t wish to suggest that anyone is to blame for this, but when to these periods are added the regular holidays and the absences from school due to individual cases of illness, it will be seen that – to put it at its lowest – the town is paying away a great deal of money for nothing. We suggest that the public and the teachers should consider whether some means cannot be found of avoiding this serious loss.

HOLY ISLAND

WHERE ST. CUTHBERT LIVED- ON FAR LINDISFARNE

The “Sphere” of December 20th contains the following interesting article:- “Lindisfarne Castle, on Holy Island,  is one of the many historic places in the market to be sold, with all its furniture and pictures. It was thoroughly restored a few years ago, after a long period of neglect and is now a most attractive and interesting property. It is situated on a basaltic stone forming the promontory of the little harbour of Holy Island where the small fishing boats gather for their trade in crabs, lobsters and periwinkles. The island has a romantic history, having been the seat of earliest Christianity in the north of England. In 635 A.D., Aidan, the Irish monk from Iona, came to Holy Island at the request of King Oswald to teach the heathen Northerners the precepts of Christianity. He established himself on Holy Island, probably appreciating its similarity to his old home of Iona, and also its nearness to Bamburgh, the Royal seat of King Oswald. Men flocked to hear him preach and his success was tremendous, 15,000 being baptized in seven days. The most famous of his successors was the austere St. Cuthbert, who retired after two years of holding the Bishopric, to his hermit’s cell on one of the Farne Islands. When he died, shortly afterwards, from the severity of his self-inflicted penance, he was buried beside the altar on Holy Island. But his body was not permitted to remain in peace, and was constantly shifted during troubled period of the Middlle Ages, till it now rests in Durham Cathedral. His body was hurriedly removed from Lindisfarne when the marauding Danes attacked the Island in the ninth century, and the Monks had to flee, carrying the body of their revered saint in a wooden coffin.

A photograph of Holy Island Castle taken from the ruins of the Priory, in the early-mid 20th century.
Ref: BRO 1865-12

“The Danes robbed and destroyed the Church and Monastery, leaving the place in utter desolation. It was not till 200 years later that a new Priory was erected, whose remains are to be seen today. The foundations were laid in 1093, the architect being a monk from Durham, who designed a beautiful cruciform Norman church, built of a warm red sandstone. The church remained almost unaltered till the Dissolution of the Monastries brought the inevitable destruction, but the ruins of today are eloquent of the dignity of the 12th century Benedictine Church. The centre tower stood till the middle of the 18th century, only a delicate slender arch over the transept crossing remaining to remind us of what had once stood there. The western end, with its 2 towers and fine Norman doorway, is in course of careful restoration. The cylindrical columns of the nave are of the sturdy Norman type, signalised by sunken zigzag mouldings cut across the piers. The ground plan of the monastic buildings remain in a very complete form, so that it is possible to trace out the whole structure of a Benedictine priory with its cloistered garth, chapter house, dormitory, parlour, prior’s hall, kitchen, bakehouse, and their offices.

  1. The article has 5 illustrations:-Central Holy Island Castle-now for sale. The castle occupied a rocky buff and is here seen from the ruins of the domestic part of the Priory.

2. Repairing the West doorway. (The Abbey doorway is now under repair by the Office of Works) – scaffolding erected to do the work is shown.

3. A fine Norman pillar, with zig-zag ornaments which connect it with Durham, which has similar columns.

4. In the ruined Nave- showing the stout Norman pillars and north aisle, now open to the winds.

5. The flying Arch over the tower crossing of the Priory Church, which still defies the gales from the North sea.

OLD SPITTAL

A correspondent writes:- Mr Borthwick’s lecture on “Old Spittal,” brought together an audience which completely filled St Paul’s Hall- a testimony not only to the ability of the lecturer, but of the esteem in which he is held by the inhabitants of Spittal.

OLD SPITTAL- THE LECTURE

Mr Borthwick said perhaps a more suitable title for his lecture would have been “How Spittal Began.” A brief revisal of the general history of England led up to the first authentic mention of Spittal. When the Tweed first became the boundary between England and Scotland in 1018 or 1020, the salmon fishery at Hallowstell belonged to the monks of Coldingham. King Edgar of Scotland, in 1097, granted a charter to Hallowstell, and presented it to the Bishop of Durham, who gifted it to the monks of Holy Island. The word “stell” means a fixed place. When the monks came into possession of the fishery they hallowed it, hence the name Hallowstell. Both words are Anglo-Saxon, and the fishery was probably known long before we have any recorded mention of it.

About the time the charter was granted to Hallowstell, leprosy was common, and a hospital for lepers was built at Spittal, and dedicated to St. Bartholomew. It stood on the ground now occupied by Messrs Boston’s herring curing yard and the boat-building yard.

An early 20th century photograph of the Sandstell area at Spittal.  Bostons Yard where the hospital for lepers once stood can be seen behind the five fishing boats on the beach. Ref: BRO 1887-2-2

It extended across the street and up the north side of Princes Street to the Well Road. It must have been fairly rich and of considerable dimensions, because in 1226 the revenues for the up keep of the hospital were derived from lands at Tweedmouth, Orde, Scremerstone, Fenwick, and other parishes. In 1234 the Bishop of Durham, when on a visit to Fenwick, confirmed all the gifts made to Spittal hospital. In 1362 the master of the hospital was John de Lowick, and in 1369 his successor Bather, owing to an increase of lawlessness, built peel tower for its protection. This tower was still standing as late as 1612, and was known as Bather Tower. Just before the dissolution of the monasteries, owing perhaps to slender revenues or defenceless situation, with Border thieves on both sides, the revenues of the hospital were transferred to Kepier, near Durham. On the dissolution of the monasteries, Spittal became the property of the King.

During one of the Border raids in 1547, a Scotsman named John Cockburn, Lord of Ormeston, guided a party of English raiders through the passes of the lowland hills, and was rewarded by Edward V1 with the lands of Spittal.

No trace of the old hospital remains. It was probably reduced to ruins about 1555, when the Border Abbeys of Melrose and Kelso were destroyed. In conclusion, the lecturer  described the religious life of the Spittal people from the destruction of the old hospital till 1745, when the first Presbyterian Meeting House was built, on the site where now stands St. Paul’s Church.

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